Even though we live on opposite ends of the US, and will likely never meet personally, as moms of two children of the same ages (12 & 9), we were like old friends in no time. We had a wonderful conversation about bringing our children up with Christian values, how we felt about our role and responsibility to our children to teach them to be self-sufficient, yet servants to their family, and later to be self-sufficient servants as adults in society. We also shared what life was like in our little corner of the world and some funny stories about how we each get our kids to help around the house. 

I thoroughly enjoyed sharing time on the phone with a fellow Christian mom.  Our conversation strengthened my belief and mission to continue in my role as my children’s first and most consistant teacher of home management and of life.  Thank you for that Julie ~ you did a great job on the article.

Here is a link to the article that appeared in the Redding, California newspaper on Feb. 9.

Julie’s Article – How to Get Kids to Help Around the House

I’d love to hear your thoughts and comments on how you see your role as your child’s first and most consistant teacher of life.

To learn more about my book and household chore system that she references, visit: http://www.KidsandChores.net or The Simplified Home.

Janet, The Organizing Genie

Originally posted 2009-02-10 20:05:52. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

First impressions are important, and your entry way is the first thing to greet you and your guests. It needs to be both inviting and functional by providing a spot to drop your keys, bags, and coats when you arrive home. But if it’s not organized, it’s easy for this small space to become cluttered and unused, causing frustration as you’re trying to get out the door. Follow these tips to create a useful, beautiful entryway.

• DECIDE WHAT SHOULD RESIDE IN THE ENTRYWAY – Ideally, the entryway should be a spot for coats and other outerwear, umbrellas, daily-used backpacks, purses, briefcases, cel-phone, laptop, and totes – anything you need access to as you leave your home.
• EVALUATE YOUR CURRENT STASH OF THESE ITEMS – Pare down your coat and tote bag collections. Toss broken umbrellas, gloves without mates, and boots that don’t fit. I often see entry closets and mudrooms overrun by tote bags. How many tote bags can you use at any given time. A few is all that you need. It’s time for the rest to go! Your goal here is to keep only those things you frequently use.
• REMOVE EVERYTHING ELSE – Don’t let your entryway become a catch-all for things you don’t know what to do with. (This is not the spot for the turkey roasting pan!) Sort, toss or donate things that you really don’t use or need, and assign new spots elsewhere in your home for the must-keeps.

• MAKE GOOD USE OF YOUR SPACE – Most entryways have a closet. Reevaluate its set-up. If it has a single rod across the top, could you raise it a bit and add a second rod below, doubling your hanging space. Could shelves be added above the rod or run across the depth of the closet? This makes use of storage space in the top of the closet that is often wasted. Could you add a tiered shoe rack on the floor? Or an over the door coat rack or shoe holder? I use these often to store gloves, hats and scarves. Maximize every inch of the space! While you’re at it, invest in sturdy wooden hangers so your coats hang neatly. I love to use the inside of the door to hang an over the door shoe holder to hold gloves, scarves, and hats.

• USE CONTAINERS TO CONTAIN CLUTTER – This not only makes for a neat
  

  28 Qt Clear Plastic Container

  look, but it will also help you quickly find what you need. Label baskets or containers on the shelves for out-the-door items, such as umbrellas, mittens, hats, and dog leaches.  If, due to space constraints, you must keep other types of items inthis closet as well, be sure to categorize and containerize them, labeling as you go. I use 28 quart clear containers and smaller.

• CONSIDER SPACE OUTSIDE THE CLOSET – This is especially necessary if you don’t have a closet or if it’s very small. For example, a coat rack or set of wall-mounted hooks in the entryway will work wonders if you’re short on closet space. Likewise, a pretty urn can hold umbrellas, a bench with storage under the seat can hold outerwear, and a wicker basket on the floor can hold shoes. By simply declaring a “home” and containing these items, you’ll instantly take your entryway from messy to marvelous.

• SET UP AN OUT-THE-DOOR LAUNCHING PAD – Dedicate one basket near the door for items that need to leave the house, such as library books, DVDs to be returned, dry cleaning to be dropped off, and things to be delivered to family or friends. A charging station for all the electronics is a great addition to your launching pad. That’s where I keep ours, where I charge my cel phone, camera battery and Blue Tooth.

Originally posted 2010-06-17 18:53:33. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

With any large project, it is most effective to break it down into manageable steps, then focus on just one step at a time. The formula below provides a step-by-step process for tackling any organizing project.

Five Boxes, a Bag and a List is all you need to organize your home or office, one room or area at a time! Let’s get started.

1) Gather your supplies –

• 5 large, easy to store cardboard boxes or plastic bins. These boxes will become your decluttering tools for rooms to come!
• A large trash bag
• A couple of Sharpie markers
• A pad of paper
• A timer

2) Commit the time – from 30 to 60 minutes

3) Assign each box a purpose – write on a piece of tape or tape a piece of paper on each box with these words (1 per box):

• KEEP IT
• ROUTE IT
• GIVE IT
• SELL IT
• STORE IT
• TOSS IT

Now You’re Ready to Simplify Your Space:

4) Choose the space to declutter and set your timer for a predetermined time of 30 to 60 minutes. Allow for an additional 10 minutes for final clean up and routing misplaced items. If time is up before the room is finished, remember or mark where you stopped.

5) Line up your labeled boxes, trash bag, and keep the pad of paper close by. Start sorting items beginning on the left side of the room and work left to right. Here’s what goes in each box:

• KEEP IT – place in this box only those items that you love or can identify a specific purpose for current use. These are items that will be kept in the space you are currently working in.
• ROUTE IT – collect items that you will be keeping, but do not belong in the this room. The goal is for you to stay focused on the room you have committed to. By placing items in this box that need to go to another space, rather than taking them now, will keep you from getting distracted in other rooms. This box will be dealt with later.
• GIVE IT – collect treasures that are no longer needed or wanted, but are in good condition. This box can be donated to your favorite organization. There are many worthy organizations who will pick up your discarded treasures, saving you the time and physical work of loading it in your car.
• SELL IT – with the popularity of auction sites like eBay, you can easily make money on the treasures that you uncover. If you don’t have an interest in learning how to sell on-line, you can take your items to a local ‘auction drop-shop’ or ‘trading post’, as they are commonly called. For a percentage of the final sale price, the drop shop will handle the selling process for you. If you have no interest in selling your items, eliminate this box.
• STORE IT – collect items you are unsure of (keep or purge), close up the box at the end of this decluttering session, and place a scheduled toss/donate date on the box. If items in this box are not accessed by that date, you have just proven to yourself that the items inside are not needed or missed. After the dispose of date, deliver the box unopened to the charity of your choice.
• TOSS IT – use the trash bag to collect trash, items that are in poor repair, non-sellable/givable items, or you have no idea what it is.
• THE LIST – collect To-Dos or reminders. While decluttering, you may remember tasks you haven’t completed and be tempted to act on them. Don’t be distracted from your current project of decluttering to handle a ‘To do’. Add the ‘To do’ to your list and forget it for now. Stay focused on the current project of decluttering your space.

When the timer goes off take the clean up time to:

• Empty the KEEP IT box in the space where they go
• Empty the ROUTE IT box – take items in this box out of the space you were just working in and put them away in the spaces where they go
• Throw out the items in the TOSS IT bag – get the TOSS IT stuff out of your space immediately
• Store the STORE IT box in a place where you have access if needed, and you can see the “toss by” date.
• Schedule a time to donate the GIVE IT box and decide the best venue for selling your SELL IT items (i.e., consignment store, auction drop-shop, do-it-yourself auction selling, garage sale)
• Schedule the To-Do’s on your list.

Continue this process consistently in at least 30 to 60-minute time blocks (increase your organizing time as you progress) and you’ll soon have a newly decluttered space that you can enjoy again.

Originally posted 2008-08-18 06:42:50. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

To keep the price low, this valuable home management resource is available in an electronic format, commonly called an E-book. This means that you can immediately download this 75+ page guide and begin benefiting from all my insider home organization tips and strategies in less than 5 minutes from now!   No shipping costs and no waiting!

To celebrate my new book, I’m giving away a ten-part home organization mini-course (based on the strategies shared in the book) for all my valued subscribers! Each day for the next ten days you will receive a practical home organization strategy that will jumpstart your organizing efforts.

Here’s a sneak peak at what you’ll learn from Home Organization Secrets for Busy Moms:

- How to identify clutter in your life – physical and mental

- How to determine your “whys” for getting organized

- How to design your organizational goals for your home and family

- How to break through information overload and take action
- 13 must-do home organization strategies
-THE 5 essential home management systems no home should be without
- How to immediately identify where to place your stuff for efficient access

- Step-by-step “How Tos” for organizing any space
- insider tips and strategies that my personal clients learn from working side-by-side with me
- And so much more!

I’ve included two great BONUSES too!  

BONUS: Shelf-Life Guide for 100+ Common Household Items (updated & expanded)
BONUS: A Parent’s Guide to Medicine Safety

You get all this for $9.99 for a limited time!

(the regular price is $14.97)

Visit Home Organization Secrets for Busy Moms to learn more.

Talk soon …

Janet Nusbaum, The Organizing Genie
(Mom since 1997, Professional Organizer since 2004)

Janet@SimplifiedSpaces.net
317-867-1540

NOTE: Home Organization Secrets for Busy Moms can also be found in our on-line store: www.TheSimplifiedHome.net

Originally posted 2009-05-20 21:18:32. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

Socks travel through several stages in the wash and wear cycle – from dresser drawer, being worn, to the washer, dryer, then sorted and matched with their mate, before they make it safely back to the dresser drawer. With so many steps in the process, no wonder they get lost and mismatched.

Socks that end up in mismatched piles and never make it safely back to the dresser drawer are useless clutter.

Have you considered the time it takes to match socks coming out of the laundry and getting them back in the drawer. Before I found the tool I’m about to tell you about, in our home our socks made it out of the laundry, but never seemed to get matched up, so they stayed in a yellow basket where each family member had to go to fish out and match up a pair of socks to wear for the day. Think of the daily chaos just trying to get dressed X 3. Only until it got so bad that my entire household’s inventory of socks were piled in a laundry basket, would I wage a sock sorting event. I got the kids involved by putting in a movie and all of us would spread out on the floor and match up socks, typically for the duration of the movie.

Perhaps you’re guilty of having “sock clutter”? Sock clutter consists of those orphan socks that litter your home, never to be worn again because the mate has been lost somewhere in the laundry process.

What if you had a tool that would eliminate both of these sock chores forever?

• The hours spent each week sorting and matching each family member’s socks
• Orphan sock clutter
• Fighting about whose socks are whose.

IMAGINE … never losing another sock or having to sort piles of socks again! Think of the time and space you’d get back. Imagine mornings running smoothly when family members now have easy access to a pair of socks.

As a Professional Organizer and busy mom of two, I am always on the look-out for home organizing and management tools that simplify daily home functions. Imagine how excited I was when I found Loc-A-Soks (also called Sock-Locks.)

With Sock-Locks you eliminate lost / orphan socks forever and save the time wasted sorting and matching socks.

With Loc-A-Sok, socks go from washer to dryer to dresser drawer all without sorting or losing socks.

Made in four bright colors (Blue, Hot Pink, Lime Green and Purple), you can assign a different colored set (10 Sock-locks per pack) for every family member and easily keep socks separated throughout the laundry process.

Sock-Locks work for all types of socks. Simply insert each sock, toes first through the grippers. The Loc-A-Sok is a one-step process designed to keep any socks paired from your laundry basket, to the washer, the dryer and into the dresser drawer.

No need to remove the Loc-A-Sok until socks are ready to wear. Store Sock-Locks near the laundry basket and attach socks to the Sock-Lock before dropping them in the laundry basket.

Made of durable plastic for long-term use, each pack includes enough for 10 pairs of socks, or 20 pairs of thin socks. Sock-Locks come in four colors making it easy to assign a different color to each family member.

As an Organizing Consultant, I recommend the Loc-A-Soks to anyone who wants to save time, eliminate inefficient home management tasks, teach their children organizational skills, save money by losing fewer socks, and be more organized, especially busy moms like me.

Sock-Locks make the perfect gift for busy moms, new mothers, caregivers, those with memory challenges … and really anyone! Everyone can benefit from this time-saving product.

Learn more about Loc-A-Soks.

Originally posted 2009-09-07 14:53:34. Republished by Blog Post Promoter